The present invention relates generally to a demagnetizer for magnetic heads, and more particularly to a cassette-type demagnetizer for the magnetic heads of tape-recording and/or playback units.
The most widely used magnetic tape system is the one developed by the Phillips Corporation of Holland, the so-called "cassette" tapes which incorporate a take-up and a supply hub in a small cassette housing which housing can be readily placed into a tape-recording and/or playback unit so that the hubs become engaged by the drive spindles of the unit to effect transfer of tape from the one to the other of these hubs.
The recording of signals on magnetic tapes and the retrieval of signals for subsequent playback, is carried out in tape-recording and/or playback units by means of magnetic heads whose construction is well known. All such heads, including those in units which are specifically intended for use with tape cassettes, acquire residual magnetism over a period of time. Unless these heads are demagnetized or degaussed, the residual maagnetism will cause noise and distortion during recording and/or during playback.
Various head demagnetizers are already known from the art, including demagnetizers for use with tape-recording and/or playback units that use tape cassettes. However, they are all relatively complicated in construction and most of them require external electrical power for their operation.
What is not heretofore known from the art is a simple cassette-type demagnetizer which requires no external power, and which has the further capability of not only demagnetizing the tape head of a unit with which it is to be used, but also of cleaning residual contaminant particles, such as oxide particles, which inevitably adhere to the recording-tape contacting surfaces of these heads.